1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gaming system which enables a player to use the temporary result -of game play on a portable gaming machine to continue the game play on a home or business use gaming machine.
The invention also relates to a raising simulation gaming machine and a raising gaming system using the same, and more particularly to a raising game of raising a virtual character or simulating love with a virtual character as a game player performs key input operation, etc., and a raising gaming system and a raising game method of providing a composite image of the image of the virtual character raised on the raising game and the image of the game player and displaying or printing the composite image.
2. Description of Related Art
An initial data input system of a game as described in (A) the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Sho 63-242253 is known as a conventional art similar to the above-described gaming system. This art aims at enabling a player to challenge a business use video game with a character having ability grown using a home video game.
The Japanese Patent No. 2642088 (B) discloses a configuration wherein a game program of a small child electronic gaming unit can be electronically connected to a large parent gaming unit so that a game played on the child electronic gaming unit can be executed on the large parent gaming unit with a large keying section and an external display unit having a large screen.
Further, GAME BOY electronic game machine of Nintendo Kabushiki kaisha, TAMAGOTCHI electronic game machine of Bandai Kabushiki kaisha, and the like are known as conventional portable games and raising games making the most of the characteristics of the portable gaming machines are in fashion.
The characteristics of the portable gaming machine are to enable a game player to play a game at any time and anywhere and always carry the portable gaming machine for playing a game because the gaming machine has an internal power supply such as a battery; for example, to raise a pet, the portable gaming machine enables the game player to also play a passive game in addition to active games as conventional games.
To use the portable gaming machine for a raising game of a pet of a virtual character as described above, the pet being raised requests ‘˜meal,” ‘play,” etc., of the game player by voice, etc., and the game player can play a passive game of performing game operation in response to the request, so that the game player can perform an act of raising the pet in a manner near actual pet raising; the game player feels a stronger attachment to the pet as compared with a conventional gaming machine enabling the player only to perform an active raising act.
A conventional raising simulation gaming machine is a gaming machine on which a game player raises a virtual character based on a predetermined raising simulation program; a generally known one is a size as large as a business card so that the gaming machine can be carried.
Such a portable raising simulation gaming machine has a memory for storing a raising simulation game program and control means for making a game proceed according to the raising simulation game program. The gaming machine requests care of “meal,” “play,” etc., of the game player according to the raising simulation game program. When the game player selects a meal, gives it to the pet, and keeps the pet company by entering commands through key input means based on the requests, image data of the character responsive to the raising simulation result of the above-mentioned key input, etc., is determined by the control means from image data of a number of characters stored in the memory as if the virtual character grew in response to the care, and the determined image data is displayed on a display.
The virtual character raised as described above is raised by the game player who enters commands through keys, etc., and thus can be raised like a-lovely pet as a so-called virtual pet. Since such a virtual pet can be kept in a portable raising simulation gaming machine, ˜there is not a fear of putting neighbors to trouble as dogs or cats and no keeping space is required, so that anybody can have a pet with a light heart. Particularly, in recent years it has become very difficult to keep pets in large cities and abandoned cats, dogs, etc., are at stake. With this being the situation, demand for such virtual pets will increase in the future.
Further, some game software programs of home fixed gaming machines provide games to bring up girls or children.
However, in the related art (a), the ability data of the character raised on the home gaming machine requiring an external power supply is used for the player to play a game on a business use gaming machine. For example, when the data of the raised character is transferred to the business use gaming machine and a player plays a game on the business use gaming machine based on the transferred data, if the character is a little insufficient to grow, it cannot be raised additionally on the spot. For example, assuming that the game played on the business use gaming machine described above is a combative sport game, the win-loss record against an opponent on the business use gaming machine changes entirely depending on whether or not the raised character has ability lower than the opponent by one level.
In the related art (b), a game that can be played on a small gaming machine is simply allowed to be played on a large screen by operating large keys, and large and small gaming machines do not operate under different game programs, thus the game lacks fun.
A game is proposed wherein the above-described portable gaming machines are connected by a cable and the characters raised on the portable gaming machines are made to fight with each other or marry. However, the player cannot continue to play the game on a home or business use gaming machine of high image quality with the character raised on the portable gaming machine.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new gaming system which enables a player to play a game on a home or business use gaming machine based on the game play result on a portable gaming machine.
By the way, a known machine for raising a virtual pet (character) as described above is a machine for raising the pet only in a simple unit such as a portable raising simulation gaming machine, thus the capacity of storing character information of image information, etc., of characters that can be raised on the portable raising simulation gaming machine and the display capability of the character information are limited. For example, a character image displayed on a display is formed by monochrome, rough dots and is extremely plain and simple as compared with real cats or dogs. To satisfy a demand as a pet replacing a real cat or dog, an image, reaction, etc., close to a real image to which the player can feel an attachment like a real pet needs to be represented as a virtual character. However, it is difficult to accomplish it on a portable or home gaming machine because of a high cost and upsizing the gaming machine.
For example, to bring up a child, his or her parent may take a souvenir photograph on a ceremony such as a birthday, graduation ceremony, or a wedding. A raising simulation gaming machine for taking such a souvenir photograph does not exist. The reason why such ceremonies are not provided is that if a raising simulation gaming machine on which such ceremonies can be performed is provided, it is feared that the raising game itself will be good for nothing if the ceremonies become old-fashioned.
In addition, on such a ceremony, parents often have souvenir photograph taken together with their child rather than the brought-up child solely has his or her souvenir photograph taken as described above. A conventional raising simulation gaming machine which enables the game player to have his or her photograph taken together with a raised character does not exist.
Further, hitherto, the player has raised a pet (character) in a virtual world (closed society like a home) only within his or her raising simulation gaming machine. However, it is more like the real world to move a character raised by one person to a raising simulation gaming machine of another person as an adopted child or marry a character raised by one person to a character raised by another person for relating the characters raised by different persons to each other or promoting interaction among game players.
Some game software programs of home fixed gaming machines provide games to bring up girls or children. However, since the gaming machine cannot be carried, the game player plays a game (raises a pet) on the gaming machine whenever he or she wants to play the game; passive trouble as the pleasure of raising the pet around the clock cannot be given to the game player. The passive trouble is trouble of care soothing or scolding a dog or a cat in response to meal requests made by the dog or cat not considering the time. Like the above-described portable gaming machine, the home gaming machine is also a gaming machine for raising a pet in a closed virtual world in the gaming machine, thus the world in which a pet or a child is raised is narrow and poor in reality and the game lacks fun.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a raising gaming system wherein game players can raise virtual characters in a virtual world closer to a real world communicating with other game players and other virtual social facilities on raising simulation gaming machines for raising virtual characters. It is another object of the invention to provide a raising simulation gaming machine that can print a commemorative photograph of a raised character and a commemorative photograph provided by combining a game player with a raised character.